About Fenway Health

Health care should be a right, not a privilege.

Since 1971, Fenway Health has been working to make life healthier for the people in our neighborhood, the LGBT community, people living with HIV/AIDS and the broader population. Fenway was founded in 1971 as part of the free clinic movement by students who believed that “health care should be a right, not a privilege.”

In its early days, Fenway was a drop-in clinic providing free blood pressure checks and STD screenings. Over the years, Fenway obtained permanent space and incorporated as a freestanding health center with a staff of one volunteer doctor, one nurse and one intake worker. Today, Fenway Health has a budget of more than $90 million, a staff of 500 and a patient population of more than 28,000.

The mission of Fenway Health is to enhance the wellbeing of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community and all people in our neighborhoods and beyond through access to the highest quality health care, education, research and advocacy.

In 2001, Fenway launched The Fenway Institute, an interdisciplinary center for research, training, education and policy development focusing on national and international health issues, especially related to LGBT communities.

In 2009, Fenway moved into the Ansin Building, the largest LGBT health care, research and education facility in the world, and an anchor institution in Boston’s thriving Fenway neighborhood.

In 2010, Fenway welcomed the Sidney Borum, Jr. Health Center into the Fenway family. The Borum serves teens and young adults ages 12-29, and is a safe place for at-risk youth, including LGBT young people, homeless teens and young adults, those struggling with substance abuse, involved with gangs or doing sex work.

In 2013, the AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts also became a part of Fenway Health. AIDS Action serves people living with HIV/AIDS and populations at risk of infection, and leads the state’s Getting To Zero Coalition, which seeks to reduce the number of HIV infections to zero. It also operates a needle exchange that serves as an entry point to healthcare services for active substance users.